Budapest Plus is how we can achieve peace instead of a frozen conflict

Batkivshchyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko believes a new format of Ukraine’s talks with world leaders – Budapest Plus – should form the basis for ending the war in the East of Ukraine and returning occupied territories and Crimea to the jurisdiction of Ukraine.

“In our strategy for achieving peace, the leading role is given to the Budapest format of negotiations. We need the in-depth format of Budapest Plus, which includes all the countries that guaranteed the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine: the United States and Great Britain, and, of course, Ukraine and Russia. But we are well aware that France and China joined the Budapest memorandum a bit later, which enhances the power and strength of these guarantees. Germany must also be in this reinforced format. From the EU, it would be advisable to invite the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,” Yulia Tymoshenko said during her speech at the National Forum “A New Strategy for Peace and Security,” in Kyiv on October 30.

The head of the Batkivshchyna Party is convinced that “the strengthened and expanded diplomatic mechanism Budapest Plus” will allow Ukraine to return its “subjectivity in the negotiation process,” will open prospects for the inclusion in the international agenda of the issue of the illegal annexation of the Crimea, which is not subject to the Minsk agreements .

“I want to emphasize again clearly: both Crimea and Donbas are Ukraine. It will never be otherwise!” Yulia Tymoshenko said, and criticized President Poroshenko, who for almost five years of the war did not use the possibilities of the Budapest memorandum to return peace to Ukraine.

At the same time, the Batkivshchyna Leader drew attention to the fact that she is not calling “to kill the stagnant Minsk process, especially with the absence of other political-diplomatic formats,” and is insisting on cooperation with the international community to make this format “effective.”

“After the presidential election I will initiate the convening of an international summit in the Budapest Plus format for the adoption of a new peace strategy and ways to secure Ukraine’s guarantees by the signatories of the memorandum. We must include active and strong diplomacy for true peace, and not continue the toothless diplomacy of frozen conflicts,” Yulia Tymoshenko concluded.